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i really like uncharted's approach to it, like getting the VA's together in a room to mocap it as well as voice it. even if they don't use the motion capture they get from the actors, it really gives a better performance, i think, by putting the actors together and making them act out the dialogue.

Yeah considering I paid $20 total for ME1 and 2 but I'm going to agree on the screw Bioware funbucks thing

I paid $20 for ME1, and got ME2 as a gift.

After playing ME2, I bought Arrival, Overlord, and Lair of the Shadow Broker, as well as buying ME1 for a sibling (with plans to buy him ME2, once he's ready).

Worth. Every. Cent.

I would pay for all of this shit a third time if I had to.

Hah

The bolded part is exactly the same for me and I agree it was worth every penny

I'd still much rather not have to deal with bullshit funbuck schemes though

Well I can't argue with that. I don't even mind that they're getting extra money out of me because I have leftover funbucks. It's just the tedium of having to buy them first, and then buy my content, which is irritating.

I'm expecting the Batarians to work with the reapers or something and some Batarian special forces dude joins your team to take down whatever's indoctrinating the Hegemony or whatever their government is called. It would seem weird to me that the went and put Krogans reciting sappy poetry and jerkass Asari and whatnot in the game but then the Batarians are the one species that are all the same, and completely evil. I mean the most sympathetic Batarian character in the entire series is a guy who says, "Yeah, pillaging and slaving is cool, but I didn't sign on for wiping out an entire colony."

"Based on my elaborate inner circle knowledge of a company that headquarters itself in a different country than where I live, I speak with total and complete moral authority in saying that costume I didn't design looks nothing like something that character I didn't create would wear. First of all, canonically, she doesn't have breasts or a vagina. Men just want to see female characters with breasts and a vagina, women don't actually have those sexual organs, and it is a sexist and also somehow racist assumption to make, and which reflects poorly on our entire society. Secondly, I notice that the design of the costume isn't exactly like that of a character from some dumb ass anime from the 90's I used to watch religiously, and I find that offensive and unforgivable, pre-order cancelled, worst video game EVER. Thirdly, I strongly feel her leavings would be of a consistently thick and nutty variety, and if distilled into the base proteins of their sewage mud based components, they could be safely recycled and consumed by other characters in an erotic setting. Check out my deviant art page if you'd like to know more, and now I'll post a bunch of really disturbing pictures from my deviant art page."

Yeah considering I paid $20 total for ME1 and 2 but I'm going to agree on the screw Bioware funbucks thing

I paid $20 for ME1, and got ME2 as a gift.

After playing ME2, I bought Arrival, Overlord, and Lair of the Shadow Broker, as well as buying ME1 for a sibling (with plans to buy him ME2, once he's ready).

Worth. Every. Cent.

I would pay for all of this shit a third time if I had to.

Hah

The bolded part is exactly the same for me and I agree it was worth every penny

I'd still much rather not have to deal with bullshit funbuck schemes though

Well I can't argue with that. I don't even mind that they're getting extra money out of me because I have leftover funbucks. It's just the tedium of having to buy them first, and then buy my content, which is irritating.

No matter how much you enjoy the DLC (hey, I thought LotSB was awesome, and will mourn Kasumi's absence in ME3 and maybe even Zaeed's as well), Bioware Funbucks still largely suck balls (though I guess I now own two Bioware games with DLC, so I'm better off than people who own one that has DLC available for it).

I probably would have already ought Arrival if I could just pay a flat price or use from my existing pool of XBL points (you know, those crazy things that are used for 99% of Xbox DLC as well as the Zune Marketplace). I guess that's whta I get for purchasing it on PC. That being said, I'm going to buy it some time this month.

...Vorcha squadmate? What would he do? Snarl and poop himself all the time?

I want a Yahg squadmate myself.

Yahg squadmate? What is he going to do? Get stuck in the boarding hatch of the planet you recuited him on and stay there? Require you carry around a drum of WD40 so you can try moving him? That's almost as bad as a Vorcha squadmate.

I think a Batarian squadmate is a possibility, as Bioware would probably enjoy the response, and they did something similar with Legion as a Geth squadmate--they could very easily handwave a Batarian revolutionary minority (or even majority) who are about as inoffensive as the non-murderous Geth to get away with it within their own plot. The Batarians, like all the species in some respects, have large gaps of their history missing, perhaps for just this reason.

So...pet theory of mine that keeps running through my head: Bioware's gonna give us a Batarian squadmate, just to mess with us. The reactions here would be...impressive.

Nuh-uh - the surprise squadmate is going to be Blasto, the first Hanar Spectre.

Enkindle THIS.

(That would be totally awesome)

Personally, if not a Batarian squadmate, my pet crack theory is that they're going to give us a Vorcha.

...Vorcha squadmate? What would he do? Snarl and poop himself all the time?

Yes. Incoherently.

Come on, you know that would be great.

I guess it could be like South Park. He'd die violently on every mission you took him on only to have him return in the same spot and condition afterwards.

Kind of like reverse-Zaeed.

Yahg squadmate? What is he going to do? Get stuck in the boarding hatch of the planet you recuited him on and stay there? Require you carry around a drum of WD40 so you can try moving him? That's almost as bad as a Vorcha squadmate.

Obvious it would be given a human model to avoid those things. Same reason Krogan aren't like 8ft tall even though they probably wanted them to be. They could just say he's a runt or something.

As for Batarian squadmates...even though I'd rather have a vorcha before that...I'm sure if they did put one in to garner sympathy they would have them be of the lower caste or something so they could tell you how shitty Batarian society is for Batarians too.

"Based on my elaborate inner circle knowledge of a company that headquarters itself in a different country than where I live, I speak with total and complete moral authority in saying that costume I didn't design looks nothing like something that character I didn't create would wear. First of all, canonically, she doesn't have breasts or a vagina. Men just want to see female characters with breasts and a vagina, women don't actually have those sexual organs, and it is a sexist and also somehow racist assumption to make, and which reflects poorly on our entire society. Secondly, I notice that the design of the costume isn't exactly like that of a character from some dumb ass anime from the 90's I used to watch religiously, and I find that offensive and unforgivable, pre-order cancelled, worst video game EVER. Thirdly, I strongly feel her leavings would be of a consistently thick and nutty variety, and if distilled into the base proteins of their sewage mud based components, they could be safely recycled and consumed by other characters in an erotic setting. Check out my deviant art page if you'd like to know more, and now I'll post a bunch of really disturbing pictures from my deviant art page."

Obvious it would be given a human model to avoid those things. Same reason Krogan aren't like 8ft tall even though they probably wanted them to be. They could just say he's a runt or something.

So we either get the Verne Troyer of the Yahg, or some kind of weird were-Yahg. He gets tiny and impotent whenever Shepard holds up a big posterboard of a moon.

Last I checked, there was no point in ME where the Krogan went from being 15 feet tall to half that, for no other explained reason. They were always human sized, unlike the Yahg. I don't think it's going to happen. Yahg make entertaining mid-level bosses, in a big circular chamber where they're not getting hilariously stuck on everything. Shrinking them down to humanoid size takes away one of the few things that already makes them interesting.

Unless...of course, Bioware pulls something out of their ass. "Okay, the Shadow Broker? Turns out he was the biggest Yahg ever. On the 'roids. The rest are tiny wimps by comparison. And here's your squadmate--all the uglyness of the Yahg in a conveniently sized mini-package."

I'm referring too the art video they had where they basically said they couldn't make the Krogan too big because they had to fit them on a human frame for animation and gameplay reasons.

Basically, I was just shooting down your inane reason for why a Yahg squaddie wouldn't be possible. Not saying we would get one, just saying that having one isn't the insurmountable task you're trying to make it out to be.

i think that having both batarians and reapers as totally non-sympathetic enemies is part of what makes the mass effect series great

slavery is an inextricable part of the batarian caste system, you say?

time to wipe that system off the map, then.

who else is going to be a total asshole during your trial on earth?

*raises hand*

i don't know why people think batarian slavery is a reason to hate batarians. it's not like them giving up slaving would make them sentient beings with value all of a sudden.

having the audacity to sue the international government for anti-slavery laws is a contributing factor, certainly

just the audacity to speak up to superior races, really. the slavery stuff is superficial in comparison to the sheer balls of the batarian race outright refusing to commit mass suicide after so many years cluttering up the galaxy. it would almost be admirable if the things were even worthy of a dispassionate ball of phlegm pelted at them.

I'm referring too the art video they had where they basically said they couldn't make the Krogan too big because they had to fit them on a human frame for animation and gameplay reasons.

Basically, I was just shooting down your inane reason for why a Yahg squaddie wouldn't be possible. Not saying we would get one, just saying that having one isn't the insurmountable task you're trying to make it out to be.

I was just shooting down your inane expectation that the changes might actually be implemented to existing canon (albeit from DLC). Though, as both of us have said, they could do enough hand-waving to make it possible, it's just extremely unlikely. I may be giving Bioware way to much credit, but I doubt hey're jumping over eachother to say, "Yeah, the Yahg are actually much, much shorter. Because."*

For the Batarians....Bioware was able to sufficiently convince themselves in the transformation of a group of religious fanatics into a small minority of a much less malevolent group. Doing the same thing to the Batarians wouldn't be as convincing because of the assumption we know much more about the Batarians than we did about the Geth, but Bioware might not feel that's the case. Who knows? It's all in their hands. Enter the handwaving, perhaps.